Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park

About this park

Forestville/Mystery Cave State Park, established in 1963, combines two genuinely distinct attractions within its 3,163 acres in Minnesota's southeastern Driftless Area: Mystery Cave, the longest cave system documented anywhere in the state, and the restored 19th-century village of Historic Forestville, operated as a living history museum by the Minnesota Historical Society and set to depict daily life in the year 1899. The two sites require separate admission and sit about five miles apart within the same park, letting visitors combine a genuinely rare underground tour with an equally rare above-ground glimpse into frontier commerce. Mystery Cave maintains a constant 48 degrees Fahrenheit year-round, requiring a jacket even in the height of summer, and guided tours through its passages, past stalactites, stalagmites, and underground pools, run seasonally from May through October with reservations strongly recommended. Historic Forestville, meanwhile, preserves the actual general store and surrounding buildings of a once-thriving trading town, with costumed interpreters recreating the rhythms of rural Minnesota life at the turn of the 20th century, though a 2023 bridge closure on the access road has at times limited visits to a reduced schedule. Above ground, the park's cold-water streams running through the South Branch Root River watershed support excellent trout fishing, drawing serious anglers to what ranks among the best fly-fishing water in southeastern Minnesota, while hiking, horseback, and cross-country ski trails wind through the surrounding bluffland forest. With no cell service anywhere in the park, Forestville/Mystery Cave offers a genuinely disconnected experience, and its combination of geology and history makes it one of the most distinctive two-in-one state parks anywhere in the Minnesota system.